John Ivison: Bob Rae will retire this summer, insiders say

Bob Rae will retire this summer, insiders say

It’s not only power that corrupts – it’s reaching for power. Aspiring politicians instinctively calculate how any given situation will influence their prospects for re-election or promotion.

But Bob Rae has become an exception to that rule.

Since concluding his chances of beating Justin Trudeau for the Liberal leadership were slim, an inner calm appears to have descended upon Mr. Rae, freeing him from the shackles of political ambition. It’s fair to say his prevailing interest most days is the national interest. He has become, in short, what we should aspire to in all our politicians.

But this summer the curtain may fall on a political career that began 35 years ago when he won a by-election for the NDP in the Toronto riding of Broadview.

There is a great deal of speculation inside the Liberal Party that Mr. Rae is not prepared to play second fiddle to anyone, and certainly not Trudeau Jr. He is said to be talking to a number of universities about life after politics.

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“He has no plans to leave and is happy to have a conversation with the new leader to see what role he can play,” said a Liberal spokesperson.

But stories of his political departure do not seem greatly exaggerated. Mr. Rae is understood to have courted Mr. Trudeau last year to become his running mate, at the same time as he was talking to Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of Canada about taking on a similar position. Mr. Rae’s pitch was that being leader of the Liberal Party is not an entry-level position.

“Carney listened. It’s a shame others didn’t,” he told me.

Now the roles are reversed and the Trudeau camp is keen to keep Mr. Rae onside, if, as seems likely, the Young Pretender romps to victory. While there is the prospect that any new leader might be eclipsed by Mr. Rae’s performance in the House, it would certainly give him or her space to re-organize the party in their own image.

The party certainly seems to have recognized that, but for Mr. Rae it may have slid into irrelevancy. It is in the midst of a special fund-raising effort in his name — Thanks a Million, Bob —to present the new leader with a fighting fund. It’s named after Mr. Rae, for the “long hours and endless travel, all of it willingly endured with his typical cheerful, self-effacing nature.” Self-effacing? As Mark Twain put it, he may have been born modest, but it didn’t last.

Then again, he doesn’t have much to be modest about. A Rhodes scholar and lawyer, he was first elected at the age of 30 and became Premier of Ontario by 42. He’s written four books, been chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University and twice been considered for the job of Governor-General. His only regret, no doubt, is not having become Prime Minister. There are a substantial number of people in the Liberal Party and beyond who think he may well have achieved that goal, had he been chosen as the party’s leader in 2006, though I can’t say I’m one of them.

Mr. Rae’s departure from politics, whenever it happens, will create a stampede of interest in his Toronto Centre seat, which has been in Liberal hands since 1988. Mr. Rae won by 6,000 votes in 2011, but the Liberal vote dipped 12.5%, while NDP support leapt 15%. George Smitherman, the former Ontario Cabinet minister, is said to have his eye on succeeding Mr. Rae, although he may decide to go for the newly-minted seat of Mount Pleasant, to the north of Toronto’s downtown, if the timing doesn’t work out for him.

Relations between Mr. Rae and me never did run smooth. In 2006, I remember taking issue with his policy free front-runner campaign and, over lunch asking about his position on Afghanistan a dozen different ways, with never an answer at the end of it. Yet even his fiercest critics concede he is Mount Robson among the foothills of the Liberal caucus.

If the spring session does mark his political swan-song, he will leave a very large hole on the opposition side of the House.